Merriness of March

Wow, March truly lived up to its reputation of weather from all over the spectrum. We had warm weather and then a snowstorm.

This past month was filled with different types of activities - most of them just at home. Our kids entertain each other, so they love being home, doing all kinds of things together. I am usually busy in the background but with an ear on what they are doing, loving all the imagination and "childhoodness" going on. I love that so much.

These two girls don't see much of each other but when they do, they enjoy each other's company. They have since birth!

With Keziah going to a school where most of her peers have a Dutch heritage, the study of her heritage sure became quite interesting! I don't say this too often here, but when projects like this come home from school, I am so thankful her adoption is open so we have this type of information for her :)

My helper...

This is how he spends part of his Thursdays at home with me - playing his letter identification game. If it's not that, it's his sight word game. This kid thrives on this type of stuff!

Ummmm, who is THIS grown-up looking girl?!

 

Much to the kids' dismay, we took them to Disney on Ice. They have an aversion to anything that has to do with costumes. But as you can see, that aversion didn't last too long....

Some of the characters we saw:

 

 

 

Doing some visiting, catching up with Oma-in-the-tall-tower Oma (when you have 4 omas, you need to be able to know which one we are referring to....) :

A visit to the Early Years' Center. This is how he "participates" in Circle Time.....

What was originally going to be Caesar Salad turned into Tossed Salad.....by mistake, thanks to the mini chef....

I was blessed to celebrate another birthday! I was spoiled by my children and my love.

Lincoln's gift cracks me up....I love it so much! Here it is - can you figure it out?!

Maybe having him demonstrate how it works will give you a clue :) Now I know where all my elastics went! Such a "boy" gift. Makes me smile muchly. :)

My darling daughter. She is the one who made sure both her and Lincoln had gifts for me. They had made them weeks ago, thanks to her thinking of it.

 She even thought to make a card for Nathan to give to me in case he forgot :D :D!! These kids are the best! I love them so much!!

Do you see why it is so hard to wake her up out of her slumber some mornings?! How can I do that to her? She looks so cozy and snuggly.

The many faces of Lincoln....

 

 

 

 

Now that Spring is here, the plants are coming to life, including the water cress. My dad showed the kids last year that you could eat it. Well, they decided to pick some from the creek for supper......and clean it all in my bathroom sink!!

"Mom! We have to clean it because there are bugs in it!" (see the bucket below....that's a worm!)

"See mom? We cleaned it all up for you!!"

That's what I meant at the beginning of this post when I mentioned "childhoodness". I heard them the whole time, busy in the bathroom, cleaning it all for "supper for mom", and I just didn't have the heart to tell them this was not a great idea. I was enjoying their discussions without them knowing I could hear them. They are growing up fast yet are still so young and full of "child". I love it.

And April is here, so far wet and soggy. It is exciting to see the temperatures slowly getting higher, though. Take care and enjoy this month of Spring!

Fantabulous February

Before March is behind us, let me update you with what kept us busy in February. It was another month without snow. This winter, other than December, has been short on snow so far!! I actually don't mind the snow, but I'll take the mild February weather that we enjoyed as well.....maybe if I knew what March had in store for us, I would have enjoyed those mild temperatures even more!!

Fun around the house. This girl and her creativity. She always is making some fin-angled thingamajig, an idea that pops in her head and away she goes, creating, twisting, gluing, tying, stretching, bending - using things around the house in other forms than what they were made for. Below she came up with the idea of using bracelets and pipe cleaners to make herself some glasses. She walked around with these one for the better part of the day. What a clown!! I love it!!

 Oh, and things are not just made for herself....she made sure she had one for her stuffie as well.

Nathan and I managed to get away for 2 nights and 3 days. Not a long time but a blissful time!! We went back to where we went for our honeymoon 18.5 years ago: Sir Sam's Inn. Unlike back at home, there was a tonne of snow here! So we took the opportunity to frolick in it, first by going dog sledding and then the next day by going downhill skiing.

 

 

 I am not usually a dog fan (make that an animal fan), but certain dogs I have an instant connection to and I could take them home. I love these dogs.

 

 

The Sir Sam's ski resort isn't large, but that was just fine for us. Neither one of us had been on skis in quite some time.

 

I feel so incredibly blessed to walk life with this man.

Thank you to my parents who had the kids for a few days!! Speaking of my parents, way back when they celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary, us kids got some trains made as a gift. You see, trains are one of my dad's most favourite things in the world. And seeing that we know a very gifted man that does amazing things with wood, we asked him to make a number of train sets - one for each family. The idea was that the names and birth dates would be burned on and then it could all be displayed.

It took a number of years to actually get the display up, but alas, up it went in February. My parents have this hanging on the wall in their cottage. What do you think?! Doesn't that look pretty cool?!

Ours is the second from the top, on the right. Here is a close up....

 

I notice that everyone in the family has been posted in the above pictures except for one. This monkey of a boy......mischievous, I tell ya! But oh so fun!!

Looks like I'll be back next week as March comes to a close. Enjoy these days, savouring each moment at a time, knowing you'll never get it back. See ya soon!

And He Made it to 5

On some days, I honestly didn't think he'd make it to this age. But alas, Lincoln is 5!!

While I paint him as a busy boy that makes it his full-time job to make his mother pull out every single strand of her head, he actually is quite the beautiful-spirited boy. 

I really shouldn't say (too often) how much he can exasperate me, 'cause really, that's not just his problem. My reaction and behaviour is MY doing. MY choice. MY sin. So over the last 5 years, it has been quite the learning curve for me, about me. This son of mine has made me grow for the better in so many ways.

Lincoln Denver Edward. Our son. Our gift from God. What a joy he can be - with his blue eyes that don't miss a thing, a mind that is sometimes too quick for his own good, and a sense of humour that makes you go from wanting to throttle him to laughing with him in all of 7.5 seconds.

Life, to him, is to be explored, questioned and enjoyed to its fullest. He has two very different sides to him - one where he is quite the engaging boy. The other side is his lack of confidence, which will make him shut down and he will not engage. At all. 

His birthday this year was a bit "under-rated" as we had just gotten back from the Dominican the night before and the day of we had my family get together. So we actually didn't celebrate it till the day after his birthday. As long as he got cake at some point, he really couldn't care less when we celebrated :)

We did have a few presents for him on his actual birthday

 His sister reading her card to him :)

 

 

 

Speaking of his cake, he wanted a dinosaur-tractor-truck cake. In fact, he wanted to decorate it himself. Go nuts, my boy!! I am NOT a cake decorator, so I had no problems with him taking over this part....

 

 

Although he enjoyed decorating it, I believe he loved eating it more!!

 

 

 

Some things just haven't changed.....I rarely have a photo without food on this kid's face

 

We pray that God will continue to keep this precious child of ours safe and healthy another year. We feel honoured, humbled yet privileged to be chosen as his parents. As his parents, we continue to pray for wisdom in leading this tender heart toward Jesus, his Saviour. May we do our best with the gift God has given us.